The End of World War II: A Social Revolution in Europe

72 million; Yes, 72 million is the official figure given out by the United Nations for the total number of deaths during one of the most atrocious wars history has ever seen. Out of these 72 million, about half of them, 34 million were civilian deaths. They were generally the result of carpet bombings of entire cities done by both the Allied and the Axis powers. Apart from that, one of the major sources for civilian deaths was the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis. All undesirable humans, except that of the Pure Nordic Aryan Race, as Hitler called it, were taken out of their homes, looted, and sent to the ghettos where they were ultimately subjected to what the Nazis called “Final Solution”.

But the atrocities during the war were only the beginning of the sufferings the whole continent would be subjected to. The main problem started after Nazi Germany surrendered in 1945. With the USA and the West European allies taking control of the western part of Germany, and the Soviet Red Army the eastern, along with taking control over parts of the Balkan states, Ukraine and Poland, a civil strife was eminent among the latter countries. And this was the origination of the stark divide in the development we see today within Europe; with the western part pushing its own limits of high economic growth, while the central Europe fighting with each other over ethnicities and getting ruled by dictatorships for significant periods, and the Eastern Europe still living in the realms and ideals of socialism and communism, which was deeply ingrained within their political system during the years of the Cold War.

But what exactly happened after the War which still has its remnants when you travel over Europe. Big, sky rise buildings in the plush cities of Frankfurt and Brussels appear to be in glaring contrast with the low-profile, undisciplined cities of Warsaw and Sarajevo. It was not only the war which had devastated the whole population, it was what followed after it which changed the whole social structure of the European States and brought about a sea change in the composition of ethnic groups living in the various European countries. Apart from that, it was the imposition of ideologies, first by the Nazis for a relatively shorter duration of time and then for a pretty long time by the Soviets, which changed how Eastern and Central Europe looked like after the War. There were many factors which brought out this change and we shall have a look at some of those

A Different Kind of War

This war was a bit different from all the preceding wars that had taken place in Europe; be it the Franco-Prussian war, the 30-Day war or the 100-Day war. In those wars, the enemy was looted, exploited and finally left alone to their own whims, but the Nazis did no such thing. The prisoners or the people of the captured land became the slave subjects of the Nazi Reich, working hard and serving the Nazi elite. They were used as workers who built tanks and weapons for the Fatherland for its war efforts. This had a huge psychological impact on the conquered people. They felt that they were not just conquered, but exploited to the core and had worked to serve the enemy in its war efforts against its own allies.

Migration Crises

One of the major elements that could have affected the social revolution was the mass exodus of people between whole nation states. Before the war had started, fearful of the intentions of Hitler, many Jews had left the country and settled across France and in a major chunk, in the Central European countries, where they already had a significant minority. This had led to an increased number of highly educated German Jews seeking for employment in the Slav States, Poland and Ukraine which needed such high skilled workers because the ethnic majority was not so educated to take up these kind of jobs. Hence, these jobs were snatched up by the migrant Jews which caused furore and hatred among the ethnic majorities and retribution was certainly on the cards.

But as the War began and the Nazis stomped their authority all over the Balkan and Poland, these Jews, along with the locals themselves, were taken to concentration camps and either exterminated or put to work. After the war, as the Soviets occupied this region, the Germans who had settled in the Balkans were taken revenge against. The whole lot of people was ousted from their respective nations and sent back to Germany.

In addition to this, the Balkan ethnicities started fighting among themselves. They wanted to carve out nation states for themselves which would have people from their own ethnicities. The Croats wanted people of their own to occupy the state of Croatia, while Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia also tried to strive for uni-ethnicity in the country. Thus, many people were displaced off their homes, stripped off their belongings and deported to other countries.

The final blow was served by the creation of Israel in 1948. The Jews, which were still left in the Central European Nations started moving to their native place, where they rightfully belonged to. It had significant social consequences where they had been working locally as professionals – doctors, lawyers, professors, etc. With the Germans too moving out after the war, it provided a huge opportunity for the ethnic majority, the Poles, Hungarians, Croats and the Serbs to move up the social ladder and take the top jobs.

But they were a relatively inexperienced lot. Before the war, they were ruled by the kings who governed with total autocracy. Therefore, with high red-tapism and slow bureaucracy, these countries found it difficult to adjust to the changing times. There was also the heavy hand of the Soviet Russia over these countries. The rulers were highly influenced by the communist ideologies of the USSR and even the Soviet Premiers played dirty politics to keep these countries under his control as they served as key strategic locations and a buffer between the US-supportive Western Europe and USSR.

The Disturbed Administrative and Social Fabric

During the War, every state in continental Europe, was occupied by at least 2 major powers, first being the Nazis and then the Soviets. With each annexation came a breakdown in the law and order which governed the country. There were either no rules in place, which created utter chaos in the countries, or so strict laws that people constructed whole parallel underground economies which served the basic needs of all the citizens of the country. To live normally was to live by breaking the law constantly. Above everything, violence became a part of the daily life. The ultimate power to contain violence lay in the hands of the countries that ruled over them. But it was certainly a time for retribution among the locals and as a result, there were many militia and mercenary groups which emerged which sought  extremist means to oust the Nazis and later, the Soviets. This led to utter disfuntioning and mistrust among the innocent civilians who wished a peaceful transition to power.

The factions allowed the Nazis and Soviets to become more cynical. They now tried to isolate people. Not only they rounded off people who were still supportive of the defunct authority, they wanted to end all bonds between individuals. There were curbs on the meeting places and any suspicion was strictly dealt with. Such was the fear that people would try various measures to get pre-emptive favour from the SS and the Gestapo forces for themselves. People went to the extent of giving out false information about their neighbours to the police so that they can get into the good books of the local authorities. Throughout 1940 and 1944, anonymous reports, plain rumours and personal accusations were strikingly high in the Eastern and Central European countries with Nazi rule.

All this had bought out a shady side of the effects of the war. The whole administrative system was demolished, there was no proper law and order, plundering was rampant; people were feeding off themselves on false information to the Gestapo. The social strand of the society had broken away and everything was haphazard. It was really difficult to raise the standard of society again, to ingrain and instil in people trust, confidence and affection towards other.

The Differential Treatment by the Nazis

The full and final blow which has now resulted in a stark contrast between the Western and the Central-Eastern countries was the relatively high support within the western European nations for the Fascist sentiments. So, when Hitler conquered France, Belgium and Netherlands, they trusted the local Fascist factions for policing within the country and deployed very less Germans (Around 1000 SS and Gestapo each) to these countries and hence, local people speaking the same language as everyone else, governed the country virtually. Hence, there was less amount of mistrust prevalent among the people after the war got over.  This helped these countries get up on their feet quickly after the war. There was no exodus of people into or out of the country. The people rallied around their democratic government elected after the war and focussed on economic development rather than a social reformation.

In contrast to this, there were a lot more troops, around 2,00,000 each country, deployed to the Baltic and Polish states because they rebelled more. This, as described in the earlier section above, eroded whatever administration they had, leading to a social chaos across the strata of the society.

Thus, from the following factors, we can clearly observe that one of the main contributions of Hitler, be it for the bad or good, was to bring about a major social change in the European nations he conquered. While the Western powers were left relatively left untouched, there was large upheaval on the Eastern front, with the Soviet and the Nazis sandwiching and giving them dual blows, thus making them hard to concentrate on economic development and keeping them engrossed more in improving their social and administrative culture after the war got over.  And this in turn, led to certain states turning into despotic dictatorships for a larger part of their existence.  It also led to a major social up gradation and upward mobility in social strata for the people of the Slavic nations, Poland and Ukraine.

All in all, the present state of the Central and Eastern countries can be attributed majorly to the conditions that were prevalent during and after the Second World War. A social change, a revolution that was brought about, is still showing its implications and the effect of the war is still deeply rooted in the minds of the people of these countries, which was recently reflected in its opposition to the entry of immigrants from Syria.

Titanic Catastrophe- A Brutish Catastrophe?

Jekyll Island, 1910 – a very private and secretive meeting was going on in a hotel between seven individuals on this remote island located just off the coast of Georgia. The meeting was hosted by one of the most charismatic, though notorious, capitalist of the time: Mr. John Pierpoint Morgan, famously known as J.P. Morgan. Of the seven individuals who attended the meeting, one was Morgan himself along with two of his associates, three of them represented the Rockefeller Empire and one, namely, Paul Warburg represented the Rothschild Banking dynasty of Europe, which allegedly was the banking agent of the papacy’s Jesuits, that is, the people who were loyal to the Pope and wanted to establish a New World Order through wars. Though no official record of this meeting is present, yet what was decided in the meeting turns out to be “the most” horrendous and dreadful event of the 20^th century and probably of the whole human history. Yes, it is believed that the building of the largest cruise in the world at that time and its consequent fate was duly decided in that meeting.

The Titanic Tragedy didn’t happen accidentally; rather it was planned; it was a conspiracy by some of the wealthiest people on the world then.

Seems like only an insane man would do this right? Who would put a huge amount of his hard-earned money to construct the largest cruise in the world and then just ruthlessly hatch a plot to sink it just to get some financial benefit? It is a pretty reasonable justification for not building the ship, isn’t it?  Okay, now consider this:  Morgan was the most powerful money man on Wall Street in 1912, the year that Titanic sank. At the height of his career during the early 1900s, J.P Morgan and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations and monopolies. Morgan owned shipping companies, railroad companies, automobile companies, steel companies, electric companies, rubber companies, mining companies, life insurance companies, telephone companies, telegraph companies, copper wire companies, and even some of the Thomas Edison companies that made light bulbs, radios, phonographs and movies. So, we can see that it took hardly 1% of his total wealth to build the cruise. But what circumstances compelled him to go ahead with this horrific conspiracy that took every life present on that ship on April 10^th 1912?

In 1910, J.P. Morgan was trying to convince the United States government to let him and his Wall Street friends create a monopoly on banks.  Back then another word for monopoly was a “combine” or a “trust.”  Morgan was trying to convince people that control over all of the money and the banks in the United States should be combined into one big central bank or “Money Trust” where he and his partners on Wall Street would be the bosses. But many of the wealthy industrialists thought that if a Federal Reserve was formed, Morgan and his group of bankers would control the Bank and would gain unprecedented monopoly on the money flow in and out of the country.  Another conspiracy theory claims that since the 1830s, America did not have a central bank. Jesuits in America and internationally wanted a central bank located in America, a bank that they could use as a bottomless resource to fulfill their Jesuit agenda of taking money and planning wars and schemes in the world in order to establish the New World Order and bring the Pope to dominate the whole world.

Either way, many notable capitalists of that time including John Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isador Strauss were opposed to this idea and Morgan, along with Rockefeller suspected that they would vehemently oppose the Bill regarding the setting up of the Bank if put in the U.S. Congress. Hence, they decided to cut them short. White Star Line, the shipping company owned by Morgan started building the ship in Belfast, Ireland which was home to majority of the Jesuits. The captain of the ship, Edward Smith, was also allegedly a fanatic Jesuit who was ready to sacrifice himself for the papacy. Interestingly enough, Smith had been travelling in the North Atlantic waters for 26 years and was the most experienced campaigner of that route.

The Titanic set out in its maiden voyage on April 10^th 1912. The three opposing capitalists mentioned above, along with others, including Morgan, were slated to be on board on Titanic’s maiden voyage. But, apparently, Morgan cancelled his ticket at the last moment and didn’t board the ship. The others, who did board it, didn’t enjoy the same fate as that of Morgan; rather Morgan had already scripted their fate.

The conspiracy theory becomes more convincing from the fact that Captain Smith, being a mater navigator of the Atlantic, allegedly sailed directly into iceberg territory, failing to heed the numerous warnings given by other ships to decrease speed, and tread carefully. The glancing blow to the side of the Titanic is also said to violate basic safety measurements associated with sailing. Danger is meant to be met head on to avoid exactly what happened to the Titanic. Add to it,the Titanic’s flare guns fired white flares. Red was (and is) the emergency standard. Other colors were used for identification (white = White Star Line). When the Titanic was sinking, her crew fired her flare guns. The Californian and other ships saw the white flares, but didn’t consider them a distress call. At one point, the Californian, commanded by Captain Lord, may have been as close as six miles to the stricken vessel. But alas, the unimaginable happened. The ship touted as the “unsinkable” sank on its maiden voyage.

Morgan’s dream was realized in less than a year after the tragedy as in 1913, the American Government approved the establishment of the Federal Reserve, which would function independent of the Government and would be responsible for all economic and financial decisions of the United States. And the year after that, Jesuits’ dreams came true as a war broke out which engulfed the whole planet and which resulted in the devastation of many great empires and caused exuberant bloodshed.

But the Jesuits could not establish their so called “New World Order” as people slowly began to lose trust in the Vatican and started focusing on more contemplating issues like Liberty, Equality, Sovereignty and Adult suffrage.

There have been numerous conspiracy theories regarding the Titanic disaster, with this being the most convincing. Many have claimed that they are farce and that the ship did unknowingly hit the iceberg. There is still much debate as well as argument going around among oceanologists and forensic experts, who have investigated the ship’s wrecks and conspiracy theorists, who still believe that the ship was indeed doomed from the very time it was being built. Alas, the debate is ever-lasting and we can only speculate what might have actually happened on that ship!

Movie Review: The Fifth Estate

Cast:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Bruhl

Director: Bill Condon

Synopsis:

 Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Julian Assange, the charismatic and notorious whistle-blower and founder of WikiLeaks. The plot is based on the emergence and subsequent popularity of Wikileaks and how it brought about great criticism on the various establishments from every corner of the world.

Review:

Yet another gripping biopic has had me gaping. The Fifth Estate is craftily directed serving as an eye-opener. It is based on the book written by Assange’s former aide, Daniel Berg, who left him on the issues of the “Anonymity” policy of the website.

The whole world hasn’t seen the power of Information Technology yet. The major establishments are exploiting their subjects on will and there is a dire need to give freedom to these poor men. Assange is deeply influenced by this ideology and owing to his horrendous childhood experiences with a certain cult, he decides to create chaos among these establishments. He gathers classified information from unknown sources and publishes them, keeping the sources safe. Many people join his crusade, but during one of his leaks, he gives more importance to the leak rather than the source, which enrages his fellow-mates and puts his mission in jeopardy.

Benedict Cumberbatch perfectly blends into the role of Assange. His subtle acting coupled with the somewhat Australian accent seems perfect for the role. Daniel Bruhl also plays a major part in influencing the ideas of Assange as Daniel Berg. The writing and screenplay of the movie stands out from the rest with piercing punch-lines and dialogues. The emotions and sentiments of the various characters, especially Berg’s when he vehemently opposes Assange against leaking information war logs on Afghanistan are caricatured beautifully.  The pace of the movie is well-maintained.  The costume and make-up team has done a wonderful job making the reel stars look real.

The movie, being based on the book, doesn’t show Assange’s initial life in detail and how he managed to get the information from his sources. The movie has an element of biasness because it shows Assange’s efforts and motives and his alleged “greed” for public eye from his compatriot Berg’s perspective. Berg first respected Assange and then left him, causing numerous allegations and counter-allegations on him by Wikileaks and vice-versa. Hence, the viewers still don’t know how Assange actually felt; he may have had his own reasons of leaking the documents putting into danger the life of the information source.

In a nut-shell, the Fifth Estate delivers the message of Information Revolution of Assange to the common man and the impact of public awareness and revolution on the establishments. The movie is exciting, creative and shows the bright as well as dark sides of Information Revolution. A recommended one-time watch!

Edison v/s Tesla: The War of Currents

6^th August, 1890 — a very bright, early morning in Auburn prison, U.S.A., a man of the name of William Kemmler was to be given the death penalty by using the most novel way of that time. He was to become the first and also the last person to be awarded death by this method. The method was electrocution. Kemmler was strapped to the electric chair, developed by an inventor Harold Brown, who was allegedly funded by an illustrious scientist of that time, and the chair was wired to an AC dynamo. When the current hit him, Kemmler’s fist clenched so tight that blood began to trickle from his palm down the arm of the chair. His face contorted, and after 17 seconds, the power was shut down. But as the power receded, everyone observed to their horror that Kemmler began to shriek for air. The current was turned on again, but the dynamo needed time to build its current, and Kemmler wheezed and gasped before the horrified witnesses as the electricity began to course through his body. Some witnesses fainted while others vomited, as it appeared that Kemmler was on the verge of regaining consciousness. The back of his coat briefly caught fire. Minutes passed until Kemmler finally went rigid. The current stopped and he was pronounced dead by Dr. Edward Spitzka, who predicted, “There will never be another electrocution.”

This atrocious incident was probably the pinnacle of the greatest feud between two of the most glorified scientists of their time, Thomas Alva Edison, who was the one to have allegedly funded the development of the electric chair and a staunch supporter of DC current and Nikola Tesla, the pioneer of AC current. This “cold-war” started from the time Tesla left his job as an assistant to Edison as he believed he was not given the recognition for his work, till Edison’s death in 1931. The main cause of this war was the strong allegiance of both the scientists to their respective philosophy regarding “current”, with Edison supporting DC power systems and Tesla backing up the then revolutionary AC power system. Hence, this feud is well known in history as the “War of Currents”.

In the 1860’s one of the leading bankers of US, J.P. Morgan decided to get into the power business and partnered with a budding inventor of that time, Edison, thus establishing the Edison Electric Company, now famously known as General Electric (GE). Edison designed power systems for various cities in US such as New York, Boston, etc. on the basis of DC power. At the same time, Tesla, a Serbian Mathematician and Engineer, was employed by Edison for his research work. Tesla, with his engineering background, depended highly on theoretical calculations and had a photographic memory, could memorize entire books, and used to have literal flashes of genius where he’d conceive the solution to a problem, or visualize the detailed schematics of a device he’d yet to invent, while Edison depended more on experimentation of his inventions. This contrasting work ethics gave rise to their differences.

Fuelling this quarrel further, Edison backed out of paying Tesla $50,000 to fix his DC motor – which Tesla did with great ease. He managed to turn an inefficient device into something incredibly efficient that saved Edison all sorts of money (well more than he agreed to pay Tesla). All he said was that Tesla failed to “understand the American sense of humor” (Tesla was a Serbian immigrant). More like he failed to realize how much of a stingy two-timer Edison was. Edison offered to up his pay from $18 a week to all of $25. Tesla, tired of this indifferent attitude towards him, resigned and set up his own company from the little money he had. Tables then turned on Tesla’s side. George Westinghouse, another leading industrialist of that time, had full faith in AC power systems and brought Tesla’s patents for AC power distribution for a whooping $1 million.

Owing to the precocious business acumen of Westinghouse, Edison Electric began to lose their clients. One of the major disadvantages of DC power distribution was that it was inefficient and costly though it operated at a lower voltage than AC. Westinghouse pounced on this disadvantage, thus flourishing his business. Morgan warned Edison of this impending danger, and Edison (which he expressed publicly only 2 months before his death in 1931) knew somewhere inside his mind that AC power was better than DC. In this desperation, he decided to use spineless scare tactics against to convince the public of the danger of using AC power and to turn the tide in his favour.  In order to “prove” this “fact,” he had a number of animals electrocuted, including a circus elephant (which was to be put to death for killing some people).  And his intimidation tactics reached its summit when he funded the design of the electric chair working on AC power source. He thought he would successfully turn people against AC current, but it happened the other way around. The public, instead of criticising Tesla, criticised the inventors of the chair i.e., Harold Brown and Thomas Edison. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t succeed in belittling Tesla. The major jolt for Edison came when Westinghouse grabbed the order for lighting the Chicago World Fair in the year 1893 and also the contract for lightning up New Orleans.

The demise of Edison’s company had begun; J.P Morgan, frustrated with the bitter criticism Edison faced from the public and the high losses his company incurred, decided to remove Edison as his partner and re-established the company under the new name of “General Electric”.

It was a very simple fact that Edison failed to understand; no matter what he did, AC system was just better than the DC one. It was inexpensive, more efficient, and more importantly could be used for wide range power transmission. In the end, as expected, Tesla’s technology prevailed. His revolutionary idea had profoundly beaten the system developed by a scientist who had over 1000 patents in his name. Edison never accepted Tesla’s technology as superior to him till 2 months before his death. He repented for using menacing scare tactics against Tesla. Tesla, too, never left an opportunity to show his despise for his former employer publicly. Tesla once criticized Edison by saying in a New York Times interview,

“He had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor’s instinct and practical American sense.” 

The feud, which started on the basis of differing work ethics and due to the egoistic nature of both the scientists, culminated into a ghastly and nasty public spat, accounting for numerous animals and a human life, between two of the most celebrated scientist in the world history.

“The Midnight Ride”: The Trigger to America’s Independence

July, the 4^th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence of the 13 colonies from the British rule to form the United States of America. Noted people, like General George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, along with many others, signed this Declaration and are popularly known as the “Founding Fathers”. Skirmishes between both sides had started in late 1760’s, but in April 1775 it suddenly sprang up into a revolutionary war. But what exactly had happened in that month that suddenly aggravated the feeling of hatred in Americans against the British rule? This was the incident that tipped the revolutionists, that turned a storm into a fierce hurricane and that set off the American Revolution. It was the “Midnight Ride” by a man named Paul Revere; it was literally the Tipping Point of the American Revolution.

Paul Revere was a multi talented personality; he was a silversmith, engraver, writer, and a local politician. He had been assigned the task by the revolutionaries in Boston to convey messages of any imminent British activity to the neighborhood towns. On April 7^th 1775, suspecting military activity, he was sent, by one of his friends, Joseph Warren, to warn the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Concord, of the impending danger and the suspicion that the British troops were coming to confiscate the ammunition from the revolutionaries in Concord. After receiving the warning, Concord residents duly began moving the military supplies away from the town.

11 days after, on the afternoon of April 18, 1775, a young boy who worked at a livery stable in Boston overheard one British army officer say to another something about “hell to pay tomorrow.” The stable boy ran with the news to Boston’s North End to the home of Paul Revere. Revere listened gravely; this was not the first rumor to come his way that day. Earlier, he had been told of an unusual number of British officers gathered on Boston’s Long Wharf, talking in low tones. British crewmen had been spotted scurrying about in the boats tethered beneath the HMS Somersetand the HMS Hoyne in Boston Harbor. Several other sailors were seen on shore that morning, running what appeared to be last-minute errands. As the afternoon wore on, Revere and his close friend Joseph Warren became more and more convinced that the British were about to make the major move that had long been rumored — to march to the town of Lexington, northwest of Boston, to arrest the colonial leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams, and then on to the town of Concord to seize the stores of guns and ammunition that some of the local colonial militia had stored there.

At ten o’clock that night, Warren and Revere met. They decided they had to warn the communities surrounding Boston that the British were on their way, so that local militia could be roused to meet them. Revere was spirited across Boston Harbor to the ferry landing at Charlestown. He jumped on a horse and began his “midnight ride” to Lexington. In two hours, he covered thirteen miles. In every town he passed through along the way — Charlestown, Mcdford, North Cambridge, Menotomy — he knocked on doors and spread the word, telling local colonial leaders of the oncoming British, and telling them to spread the word to others. Church bells started ringing. Drums started beating. The news spread like a virus as those informed by Paul Revere sent out riders of their own, until alarms were going off throughout the entire region. The word was in Lincoln, Massachusetts, by one A.M., in Sudbury by three, in Andover, forty miles northwest of Boston, by five A.M., and by nine in the morning had reached as far west as Ashby, near Worcester. When the British finally began their march toward Lexington on the morning of the nineteenth, their foray into the countryside was met — to their utter astonishment— with organized and fierce resistance. In Concord that day, the British were confronted and soundly beaten by the colonial militia.

There were other men too, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, who were assigned the task to spread the message to the neighborhood about the attack. But Paul Revere was a “connector”, i.e., he knew a lot of people in the neighboring towns, and he knew as to whom the message must be conveyed so that its effect would be widespread and every citizen would know of it till dawn. The other two didn’t convey the message properly and effectively. And that’s why Paul Revere is considered to be the pioneer, the man who successfully and efficiently implemented the sole purpose of the midnight ride.

After the British were bitterly disgraced in Concord, they sought to take revenge of the attack. With additional military and improved ammunition, they attacked the major cities in the colonies. Common people too, now wholeheartedly supported the revolutionaries and took up arms against the British. The war was fought for almost a year and a half, till Americans gained what they wanted – Liberty, Freedom and Enfranchisement.

Among the stalwartly presence of leaders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to name a few, the contributions of Paul Revere were forgotten for some years. But in 1861, over 40 years after Revere’s death, a poet of the name of Henry Longfellow made the famous ride the subject of his poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride” and truly acknowledged the contributions of the man to the American Independence. The poem starts as:

 

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year…

Since then, the Midnight Ride has become a part of curriculum for the subject of American history in schools in America. Truly, American Independence wouldn’t have been achieved if not for Revere and his horse, galloping in the darkest hours of the night, waking up the folks, warning them about the grave danger, and mutinying people to take up arms against the colonists, defend themselves to fight for their rights, which they were entitled to, by birth and most importantly, planting seeds of nationalism in them, which within a year and a half, became a colossal tree in the form of the American Independence Movement and bore the fruit called “The United States of America”.

Nostradamus: The Ultimate Prophet or Outrightly Misinterpreted?

Probably, the most revered soothsayer in the world – every one of you may have heard the name of the great Michel de Nostradamus, famously know as just Nostradamus at least one time. If, by chance, you have not, let me just give a brief, and those of you who have heard, refresh your memories!!

Michel de Nostradamus was a French apothecary, or a pharmacist, and a reputed seer who published a collection of prophecies which have become famous worldwide. Nostradamus’ “alleged” claim to fame is that he has foretold or prophesized many major events in the world history, including the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust that followed, 1986 Challenger space shuttle debacle and probably the most famed of those, the 9/11 attacks. Born in 1503 in a small district in France, Nostradamus entered the University of Avingon but left it due to plague. Then, he roamed about France as an apothecary for almost 25 years. Then, in 1550, he wrote an almanac and as it got famous, he made it his profession to write almanacs. Then, slowly, he started writing prophecies. His most famous book, “Les Propheties” or The Prophecies appeared in 1555 in 3 editions. His prophecies were written in the form of quatrains and each part contained 100 prophecies, named as a “Century”.  Nostradamus died in 1566 following a long illness of his gout.

The prophecies of Nostradamus have since become popular among people.  But, the most ironic thing about these prophecies is that Nostradamus does not specify any dates for the events he predicts and even the translation of these quatrains is also not very clear. There exist numerous translations for just one quatrain. The irony is that we can’t predict the disaster or the event happening before it occurs based on his prophecies. People try to relate any major natural calamity or a major event with his prophecy after the event has happened. Then, what is the use of his soothsaying?

There have been debates for long time on whether his prophecies were really true or we have just misinterpreted them to fit them into the context. Let’s take a look at some of the major events and Nostradamus’ predictions and how we have translated it.

1. JFK Jr.’s death:

Nostradamus’ quatrain:

The year 1999 seven months

From the sky will come the great King of Terror.

To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols.

Before and after Mars reigns by good luck.

            Now, it is said that this quatrain refers to the death of John. F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife in a plane crash in the month of July in the year 1999. Now, nobody, not even the most fanatic Nostradamus supporters would have had the idea that it would refer to this event. And in this case, the first two lines do match the event, but the mention of Mongols??? No use of the last two lines in this context. So, is it really plausible that it was the plane crash he spoke of??

2. The 1986 Challenger Space Disaster:

Nostradamus’ quatrain:

From the human flock nine will be sent away,

Separated from judgment and counsel:

Their fate will be sealed on departure

Kappa, Thita, Lambda the banished dead err

This quatrain is believed to have referred to the 1986 Challenger  Space Shuttle Disaster. Of course, they didn’t decipher the prophecy until it was too late!! Here, the main reason of the disaster was the malfunctioning of the O-ring in the space shuttle which was designed by a scientist named, Thiokol. Also seven, and not nine as is said, died in this incident. Now, there is a very vague explaination for the occurrence of thita, lambda and kappa. Fanatics say that the word “Thiokol” has the first letter of all 3 words, “Th”, “K” and “L”. Now that’s really absurd, isn’t it??

 

3. Hitler’s rise to power:

Nostradamus’ quatrain:

In the place very near not far from Venus,

The two greatest ones of Asia and of Africa,

From the Rhine and Hister they will be said to have come,

Cries, tears at Malta and the Ligurian side.

This is one of the more popular quatrains; it is said to describe Hitler (Hister) at a meeting with Mussolini in which they made plans for Italy for formally enter the Second World War. The problem here is that Hister is a term used in the time of Nostradamus to describe the Danube river. It does seem to describe a war that has some relation to Germany, but there is no way of connecting this to Hitler or the Second World War.

 

4. Prophecy about Louis Pasteur:

Nostradamus’s quatrain:

Lost, found, hidden for so long a time,
the pastor will be honored as a demigod:
Before the Moon finishes its full period
he will be dishonored by other winds.

This is often cited as a prediction for the coming of Louis Pasteur and his work with microbes. The confusion is partly exacerbated by the fact that the French word for Pastor was Pasteur, but as Nostradamus never quoted anyone by name from the future, it is unlikely that he did so here – and the reference to a demigod in the same sentence suggests the religious interpretation of a religious Pastor. It is possible that Nostradamus may have been accurate with the date, however: Roussat, a Jewish Astrologer who work was known to Nostradamus put the end of the Moon cycle at 1887 – by which time Pasteur was applying his immunization technology.

 

5. The 9/11  Attacks:

Nostradamus’ quatrain:

Volcanic fire from the center of the earth
will cause trembling around the new city:
Two great rocks will make war for a long time.
Then Arethusa will redden a new river.

This quatrain has been so distorted that some examples barely resemble the real text. Some go so far as to mention New York city by name, and others describe flying metal machines. As you can see – neither of these things are actually mentioned in the true text. Many people say that the two great rocks are a reference to the planes used in the attack. Arethusa is a mythological Nymph who turned in to a fountain. Nostradamus knew this as can be seen clearly in the last sentence. A casual search on the internet will lead you to some of the most bizarre translations of this quatrain. For example, one site says this for line 2: “Will create trembling in the towers of the City of New York.”; and this for line 4: “This is when air-vessels spin-round to a new course.”

 

6. The London Fire of 1666:

Nostradamus’ quatrain:

 

The blood of the just will commit a fault at London,
burnt through lighting of twenty threes the six:
The ancient lady will fall from her high place,
several of the same sect will be killed.

The great fire of London was in 1666, so twenty threes the six could be taken to mean 20 X 3 + 6, however, regardless of the accuracy of the date, the fire was started accidentally in a bakery – so no one committed a fault. In addition, while it is true that many Dutch people were blamed and killed, it would seem that the Ancient Lady is a reference to London herself, in which case the sect would be either Londoners (which did not happen) or members of the sect that caused the fire (and none did). It seems very obscure to base a prediction on one interpretation of the numbers in the second line – the rest must be simply distorted to make a connection.

These are just some of the many misinterpretations which have occurred out of his prophecies. The end result, I think, is that we can see that most of these predictions are so broad that they really can be made to mean anything we want. Nevertheless, many people consider these to be authentic predictions of real events.

So, in a nutshell, we can tell that most of the predictions of Nostradamus have been manipulated. Occasionally, experts and staunch supporters of Nostradamus have successfully used a process of free interpretation of the facts and have twisted his words to relate it to an imminent event. Most academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus’s quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations, sometimes deliberate, or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power.

A significant trivia, which I would like to add here is that Nostradamus himself told that he had written prophecies from the year 1555 to 3397. He also said that while writing these, he had lost his conscious and his mind wavered in a mystic world.

So, Friends, decide for yourself whether you really think that Nostradamus was really a genius seer, a man with psychic power who could see the future of over 2000 years,an Ultimate Prophet,  or he was just a phony personality, who wrote these quatrains just for pleasure, or is it the fault of the generations after him, who have utterly misinterpreted his prophecies!!!

The Power of “Diez”

 

India’s greatest batsman and probably the best after Australian Legend, Donald Bradman, Brazilian Football legend Pele, 1986 World-cup winning Argentina’s captain and the flamboyant Diego Maradona, Italian great Roberto Baggio, and currently the man who is touted by many as the greatest footballer ever in the history of the game, Lionel Messi. They all were greats in their respective sports, but you know what’s common between them? Well, anyone can guess it!!! Yes, you guessed it correctly – they all donned No. 10 T-shirts!!!

The number 10 – is one of the most auspicious and audacious numbers in almost every mythology, every religion and every civilization in this world. Ten is the first number occurring in the number system which has a zero in it. It is also the first two-digit number in the number system. The number presents itself many a times in various religions ranging from the Hindus to the Mayans. Every religion has something which is 10 in number and is considered very auspicious. The number 10 has also a very marked significance in numerology. Let us see the importance of this number from the religious as well as from the numerological perspective.

Religious Beliefs:

• The Ten Commandments of Exodus and Deuteronomy are considered to be a cornerstone of Christianity and Judaism.
• In Hinduism, Lord Vishnu will take Ten different incarnations (of which, one, the Kalki incarnation is still left) for the destruction of the evil from this planet and restoration of “Dharma”.
• According to Jewish religion, a minimum of ten people are needed to open a Synagogue, the worship place for the Jews.
• Each year, in the Temple of Jerusalem, during the office of expiations, the great priest announces the name of God loudly and clearly, an exact 10 times.
• According to the Chinese tradition, men possess 10 souls: 3 superior souls, and 7 inferior souls.
• Earlier, the Christian peasants used to provide exactly one-tenth of their harvest to the ruler as an expression of divine right.
• This is interesting!!! In the past, the Roman year had only 10 months, beginning in March and finishing in December. The Romans divided these lunar months into three parts, which they called calends, nones and ides. (Remember something called “Ides of March”?)
• There are 10 various regions of the universe corresponding to the 10 various psychic parts of man.

 

Numerology:

• The number 10 is a holy number and a symbol of totality. The main reason for this is because it is the sum of the first four numbers and is also the total number of fingers on our hand.  Mathematician and scientist, Pythagoras, considered 10 as a symbol of universal creation. The reason bring that ten is the foundation of most counting systems and symbolizes the return to oneness or the beginning—after you count to ten on your fingers, you must start again.
• 10 is the symbol of matter (4) in harmony (6): 4+6.
• 10 is the sum of two 5’s. Hence it represents the two opposite current directions of the conscience: involution and evolution.
• According to a numerologist, the 1 is followed by 0 indicates the column and the circle, meaning the principle of male and female, and thus this symbol also refers to the Androgyny nature.
• According to Agriappa, “ten is called the number of all or the universal number, and the complete number marking the full course of life.” He also attributes 10 a sense of totality, the achievement, the return to the unit after the development of the cycle of the first numbers.

 

Hence, we see that there are many things which are ten in number in various religions, thus cementing the importance of the number. We also saw that the number is a prolific and versatile symbol, and is used to represent many things in numerology and symbology. No wonder the number is favorite among sport persons!!

The “Pele Goof-up”

Brazil’s all-time great footballer, Pele, has a very dramatic story on how he got his No. 10 T-shirt. In the 1958 World cup, the Brazilian Football Federation forgot to send the T-shirt numbers along with the player’s list. Hence, the FIFA assigned the number to the players randomly, and incidentally, Pele got No. 10. Brazil won that World Cup handsomely with Pele being the top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals. Hence the no. 10 stuck with Pele forever. In fact, it was Pele who made the No. 10 most famous among the footballers’ with Maradona and Messi following his footsteps.

The ritual of giving numbers to players in football started way back in 1928 in a match between Arsenal and Sheffield. Earlier, the playing 11 used to be given numbers from 1-11 starting with the goalkeeper (No. 1) and the main playmaker of the team was usually given the No. 10. Strikers were normally assigned 9 and 11. But in 1993, the EPL removed the stringent conditions on numbering of the players followed by Italian Serie A as well as Bundesliga.

In cricket, numbered T-shirts were first introduced in the 1995 World Series in Australia. It was the host team who first wore numbered T-shirts. After the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, the BCCI was even thinking of retiring the No. 10 T-shirt along with him. There have been many incidences in football history with clubs taking the decision to retire the player number along with the player.

This is the power of the number 10. Numerologically, it stands out to be the most powerful number of all and the most repeated number in the various religious books like The Bible, The Bhagvad Gita, The Quran, etc. There has been a lot of research concerning the positive power of the number and how its use affects us practically. Ten, as in English or Diez as in Spanish or Dus, as in Hindi, hence is the most decorative, the most celebrated number of all.

World War I: Zooming Past a 100 Years!! – Part 1

The Assassination of the Archduke

As the world commemorates the 100 years of the beginning of World War 1 —  a war which brought about intolerable pain and death all over the world, especially in Europe, a war which badly crippled the world economy, a war which was a devastating adversary of its own kind, a war which will be a symbol of homicide for the generations to come – let us look at the reasons that caused the war and it turns out to be the assassination of the Heir-Apparent of the Empire of Austro-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Before continuing the story of assassination, let us first see the conditions which prevailed in Europe at that time. There were countries called the “Great Powers”, which included Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. There existed various treaties between them. For example, a treaty existed between France, Russia and Serbia that if any of them is attacked, the other two would send their militaries to support it. The most controversial region was the Balkan region comprising of Serbia, a sovereign state, Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was claimed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Yugoslavia. There was a bitter dispute between the Austro-Hungarians and the Serbians over the Bosnia issue. The Serbs began to build up terrorist organizations, most notable of which was the Black Hand, also known as the Young Bosnia.

The main aim of the terrorist organizations was to create terror in the rank of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and force them to give up the issue of Bosnia. They achieved this through the support of the minority Serbs which lived in the Empire. The Black Hand used to smuggle weapons such as guns, rifles, hand-grenades inside the Empire. As the issue remained unresolved, the Black Hand decided to assassinate notable persons in the Austro-Hungary regime. And who better than the heir to the throne, the Archduke himself?  Ferdinand was a staunch supporter of a federalist regime and the claim of his government over Bosnia. Hence, they made a very meticulous plan to assassinate him.

Franz Ferdinand was to observe the military maneuvers in Bosnia in June 1914. Following the maneuvers, Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie planned to visit Sarajevo to open the state museum in its new premises. The Black Hand came to know of this trip and thought it as the most appropriate place to assassinate him in Sarajevo. The group employed a group of six assassins and they were given the required ammunition by their chief.

June, the 28^th, 1914:

The assassins were made to stand apart from each other at specific intervals en-route the path which the Archduke had planned to take. As the convoy carrying Ferdinand and his wife neared, two of the assassins failed to take a shot just out of sheer nervousness!! The third hurled a grenade at the car, but it bounced back off the folded back convertible cover into the street, leaving the Archduke unwounded. The driver then raced the car past at high speed and thus the other 3 assassins didn’t get a chance to shoot.

After attending the reception hosted by the Mayor of Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand decided to cancel his visit to the museum and instead visit the hospital to see the people wounded due to the bomb explosion. Hence, they were to take another route to the hospital, different from the original one which would have taken them to the museum. But somehow, the driver of the car didn’t even know about the changed plans and he went onto the previously decided route. One of the assassins, Gavrilo Princip, was awaiting the return of the motorcade and decided to stand beside a food-store, which was at cross-roads, where the driver was supposed to go straight and not turn his car in order to get to the hospital. But as the driver, unaware of the route change, turned his car in the wrong street just beside where Princip was standing, and the Chief Police Officer, who was in another car, ordered him to reverse his car, Princip struck. He fired two shots at the motor car from point blank, one hit the Archduke and the other hit his wife, Sophie. Sophie was dead till the motorcade reached the hospital, while the Archduke died ten minutes later.

The assassination had great repercussions. The Serbian Government clearly refused to have had any hand in the assassination, and the Austro-Hungary government sent them an ultimatum stating fast inquiries in the case and quick results. But the Serbs didn’t oblige and instead confirmed the support of Russia, in case they were attacked. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, infuriated by the slow progress in the investigation of the assassination, took the support of Germany and attacked Serbia. France, too, due to its Treaty with Russia and Serbia, was forced to join the war. Germany, then tried to attack France through Belgium, and thus Britain, who was in treaty with Belgium, joined the war too. U.S.A joined later with Italy and Ottoman Empire. Thus, began the World War 1.

The assassins were duly arrested in the later years by the Austro-Hungarian Government, put to trial and executed. But it is really fascinating to see how such a little incident, in the context of the world, could ignite the whole world and draw them into a seemingly endless and disastrous war. The assassination of the Archduke truly proved to be the “spark” which ignited one of the greatest wars in human history.

 

 

The Story Behind “The Day of Infamy”

December the 7^th, 1941 – Time, around 8 am – Place, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – On this day, this time and at this place took place one of the gravest and the most disastrous attack by a foreign country on the U.S soil. Before 9/11 happened, the “surprise” attack on the Pearl Harbor by the Japanese empire was considered to be the “biggest and the worst terrorist” attack to have happened on American soil. The attack took down one of the biggest battleships of the U.S.A, the U.S.S Arizona. This attack, we can say, literally changed the course of the war as well as of world history, as within 36 hours of the attack, the U.S.A entered the WW II in support of the Allies and played a major part in bringing about the destruction of the “over-confident” Nazi Germany and their beloved “Fuhrer”.

The First World War brought about a great amount of devastation in terms of economy as well as human lives for the countries who participated in the war, especially the U.S.A, who had entered the war late. People, back then, were stirred by idealistic approach; they sought to make the world a better place to live in by entering the war. But after the war, they understood this harsh reality.  And hence the US government didn’t participate in WW II for 2 years, despite constant requests from the then charismatic England P.M., Winston Churchill.

So then if the U.S people were so much against going to war, what now made them enter it? Yes, to some extent, it was the Pearl Harbor attack, but most importantly, it was the Presidential Address given by President Franklin D Roosevelt, which truly steered the nationalist feelings into the hearts of the American people and brought them into the war. The speech, known as the “Day of Infamy”, is probably one of the greatest speeches given in the history of mankind, and what is very intriguing about it is that it was prepared in just 24 hours of the attack. Let us explore the story behind this famous speech….

President Roosevelt heard about the attack at around 12 in the afternoon form the Secretary of Navy, Frank Knox. All, except the President, were surprised at the news of the attack, as both the countries were peacefully discussing the Pacific issue between them at the time. The whole afternoon, the whole defense staff sat along with the President gathering reports of damages to U.S installations, ships and planes in Hawaii. The President then decided that it was time U.S.A took some harsh steps against the Japanese ad decided to enter the war. But for that, he needed the support of the Congress. Hence, he decided to address a joint session of the Congress the next afternoon. Both his speech-writers were not present in Washington D.C. at that moment; hence he took it to himself to write the speech.

His main aim was to stir the nationalist feelings of the Congress so that they approve of him of going into the war. He, unlike his predecessor Woodrow Wilson, who had steered the Congress into WW I by inspiring “idealistic” feelings, decided to keep the speech as short as possible. His Secretary of State, Cordell Hull had recommended him to give a full exposition of Japanese-American relations and how the Japanese had betrayed them. But F.D.R neglected his advice and went on to with his own version. At night, he called his Secretary Grace Tully, to type down the first draft and then he made changes into it, of which the most famous and probably, the most important, the word which became the the instrument of driving the country into war, was that he replaced  “world history” with “infamy” and also “simultaneously” with “sudden”. Here is an excerpt from the speech, probably the part which made it most famous. (The original words are written in bracket after the corrected word):

“Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy (world history), the United States of America was suddenly (simultaneously) and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan………”

There were actually a total of three drafts made, but he did corrections only in the first draft. The only part which he didn’t write was an addition by one of his aides, Harry Hopkins. He suggested a next-to-last sentence that evolved in:

“With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.”

This was probably the second best part of the speech. In the speech, he told about how the country was constantly trying to maintain peace with the Japanese and how they had utterly betrayed them. The issue was now of nationalist importance, the world was watching how the country reacts to such a grave attack, it raised questions on their military strength. All these answers were needed to be given. And to give these answers, war was inevitable. Such was the impact of Roosevelt’s speech, that the Congress passed the Declaration of War on the Japanese in just 30 minutes of the delivery of speech.

The reading draft of the speech was considered to have been lost, but it was found later in the Senate Records in 1984, 43 years after the speech was delivered and the First Draft of the speech along with the correction remains conserved in the Roosevelt Memorial in the U.S.A. Such was the importance of that event in Roosevelt’s mind that even being not able to walk properly due to some problem in one leg, he climbed up the dais of the Congress on his own to give the most important speech of his career.

Such is the gravity of the speech that President George. W. Bush, in his Presidential Address after the 9/11 attack mentioned this speech and said that people really need to remember the speech and rally behind the war against terror.

“The Day of Infamy” will probably go down in the annals of history as the speech that wholly changed the course of how the world is shaped today. It is still regarded by many, including me, as the greatest political speech in the history of mankind.

CCS :The Pragmatic Way out?

“We have to heal our wounded world. The chaos, despair and senseless destruction we see today are a result of the alienation that people feel from each other and from the environment.”

-Michael Jackson

Imagine yourself a 100 years after on this Earth. What do you think the earth will look like? Will it be easy for us to even take in the fresh oxygen from the atmosphere? Scientists and their research give us the expected results. Due to the reckless deforestation and the ever growing need of power leading to the setting up of more power plants and finally, due to the increased use of vehicles, scientists have predicted that the Earth’s average temperature will rise by about 4 deg C if emission of greenhouse gases continues at the present rate.

Since 1980s the problem has aggravated and caused the attention of environmentalists. There have been many attempts to address this issue on a global level, the most successful of them being the Rio de Janeiro Summit. But still, the issue remains burning, hot and alive, ready to engulf the whole earth into it. Recently, I read an article about one of the emerging techniques in controlling carbon dioxide emissions. The technique is called Carbon Capture and Storage or CCS.

The first plant based on CCS was started in the Schwaze Pumpe power plant in East Germany run by the utility Vattenfall back in 2008. Recently, in March 2014, a power plant in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada has fully installed the CCS system in their power plant and has been successfully running it since then. The CCS really produces a very viable option for the utilization or the storage of carbon dioxide released from the power plants. Here are some of the key points about the CCS:

• The CCS basically consists of three steps: firstly, the capturing of CO2 from the flue gases ejecting out of the chimney, second step involves the transportation of gas for sequestration and the third step involves sequestration or the storage of gas in the facility, which can be in geological rocks or in old, depleted oil fields.

 

• For the transportation purposes, there is a requirement of pure carbon dioxide passing through the pipeline. Hence the captured gas must be stripped off the other greenhouse gases. The capture can be done either by extraction from the flue gases after combustion from the chimney, or from the furnace it self or the gas can be extracted by the process of pre-fuel oxidation.

 

• After the purified gas has been obtained, 95% of the existing CCS facilities transport gas through pipeline. Transport through pipelines may involve inherent leakages and the gradual depletion of pipe material due to corrosion, in case impurities are present within the gas. Hence, shipping too is considered a viable option for transporting the gas.

 

• The chief storage of the gas is presently done in depleted oil fields, where the gas is used for the process of Enhance Oil Recovery (EOR), in certain specific geological formations, which have been studied and it has been found out that these rocks are impenetrable and allow a leakage of just 1% in 5000 years. Other sources for the disposal of carbon dooxide include saline aquaries, but as they have never been properly studied, the leakage problem lurks around them.

 

• One of the options which is considered to be very efficient is still under research in Australia. This comprises of the Utilization of CO2 instead of its storage. The gas can be used to combine with solid metal oxides like Mg and Ca to produce carbonates, which are very useful in many industrial processes. But the feasibility of this project is yet to be determined.

Along with its many advantages come the drawbacks, with the chief one being the leakage problem involved. If such high amounts of gas leaks out into the atmosphere, it can be more hazardous than the same amount of gas being gradually leaked out!! The second major issue is that the cost of a power plant with full fledges CCS system installed is 80% more than a normal power plant. Also the fuel consumption rises by 18-40% in such plants.

Nevertheless, in spite of such limitations, the CCS stands out as one of the most efficient and ground breaking technique to decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is considered by many as a temporary technique used to control the emissions. It’s a Bridge solution. We still need to find a permanent solution to save ourselves and our Mother Earth from the catastrophe!!